[Cialug] OT: USB Issues

[Tim Wilson]

It’s a little over 2 years old. So not old enough to cut my losses.

I dug out my 550 watt PSU. I’m not sure if it is powerful enough, but
hopefully it will at least be enough to determine if it is the PSU.

I didn’t smell any magic smoke. This is the second time it’s happened. The
first time fried the surge protector. I guess it did it’s job. This surge
protector is older, so it may have been hit and degraded the protection.

I don’t have a scope. I could probably hook up a multimeter. I’d have to
research what pins and voltages.

I’ll run some diagnostics. I thought I had already, but I would’ve thought
that the USB/power issue would’ve been flagged.

Or I might bite the bullet and take it somewhere for them to look at.  Any
suggestions?

On Sun, Nov 14, 2021 at 11:49 PM Andrew Denner <linux-list at upeke.com> wrote:

> The first question I always look at is how old is the computer and how easy
> is it to work on? If it is a pain and older, at some point cutting your
> losses may be the best option. I agree with Shane, I would first look at
> the output of the power supply. Depending on what tools you have, is the
> voltage close to what you expect, are there any visible scorch marks or
> parts that don't look right, does anything smell like the magic smoke is
> leaking, how clean of a signal is coming out on the oscilloscope?
>
> Also as another aside, if lightning did nibble on the power supply, and you
> can replace it, what else did it stress beyond specs that are waiting to
> fail? What does running a full diagnostic on the disk's SMART, memory
> tests, etc say?
>
> On Fri, Nov 12, 2021 at 1:02 PM Shane Nehring <shane at ntoast.com> wrote:
>
> > My first instinct would actually be to suspect some damage to the PSU
> > (maybe just the 5v supply) or perhaps the MB (assuming the usb is onboard
> > the motherboard). It could be the PSU is only slightly damaged and is
> just
> > making a bunch of noise on the 5v lines and that's only adversely
> impacting
> > sensitive usb devices. Failing PSUs can cause all sorts of difficult to
> > track down weirdness.
> >
> > On Fri, Nov 12, 2021 at 12:40 PM Tim Wilson <tim_linux at wilson-home.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Hi all, this is OT from Linux, but hopefully someone can help.  This is
> > > probably TL;DR, but I think details are important.
> > >
> > > A couple of months ago, an overnight lightning storm struck close to
> our
> > > house.  When I started working the next morning, I could hear a noise
> > that
> > > sounded like a fan was going out on my gaming PC.  I shut down the PC,
> > and
> > > the noise went away.  After further investigation, I discovered that
> the
> > > noise was coming from my USB powered speakers.  They get power from a
> USB
> > > port on my PC, but are connected to a monitor so it will get audio from
> > > whichever input is selected (home or work).  I plugged the speakers
> into
> > a
> > > charge pack, and the noise went away.  This made me think I had larger
> > > issues.
> > >
> > > I had a WD external drive and a USB capture device hooked up.  The
> drive
> > > has issues, I tried plugging it into my laptop and it wasn't
> > recognized.  I
> > > still need to try the capture device.  It does not work on the gaming
> PC.
> > > Both the mouse and keyboard work.  But plugging an optical drive in,
> does
> > > not seem to work.  The optical drive does work on my laptop, so I'm
> sure
> > > it's fine.
> > >
> > > This sounds like some part of USB is fried.  No USB-C, but it has USB
> 3.1
> > > ports.  The external drive and capture device were plugged into the top
> > USB
> > > ports.  I've disconnected those, hoping the others would start working.
> > > Are there any tools you would recommend, or any suggestions?
> > >
> > > TIA!
> > > --
> > > Tim
> > > Required reading: http://bccplease.com/
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-- 
Tim
Required reading: http://bccplease.com/